"Mary Stewart - Wildfire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

happened to the schoolgirl complexion? Nick been beating you?"
 I stared at him, but he appeared to notice nothing odd in my expression. He said, cheerfully: "He never told
me you were joining him here, the scurvy devil."

"Oh Lord," I said. "Alastair, don't tell me you didn't know? We got a divorce."

He looked startled, even shocked. "Divorced? When?"

"Over four years ago now. D'you mean to tell me you hadn't heard?"

He shook his head. "Not a word. Of course, I've been abroad all the time, and I'm the world's lousiest
letter writer, and Nick's the next worst, so you can seeтАФ" He broke off and whistled a little phrase
between his teeth. "Ah, well. Sorry, Janet. IтАФwell, perhaps I'm not so very surprised, after all. ... You don't
mind my saying that?"

"Don't give it a thought." My voice was light and brittle, and would do credit. I thought, to any of
Nicholas's casual London lovelies, "ft was just one of those things that couldn't ever have worked. It was
nobody's fault; he just thought I was another kind of person altogether. You see, in my job you tend to
lookтАФwell, tough and sort of well-varnished, even when you're not."

"And you're not."

"Well. I wasn't then.."" I said. I've a better veneer now."

"Three years of my great friend Nicholas," said Alastair, "would sophisticate a Vestal Virgin. Bad luck,
Janet. But, if I may ask, what are you doing here?"

"Having a holiday like you, and dodging the Coronation crowds. I need hardly say I had no idea Nicholas
was going to be here. I was a bit run down, and wanted somewhere restful, and I heard of the hotel through
some friends of the family."

"Somewhere restful." He gave a little bark of laughter. "Oh my ears and whiskers! And you have to run
slap into Nick!"

"Not yet," I told him grimly. "That's a pleasure in store for us both."

"Lord, Lord," said Alastair ruefully, then began to grin again. "Don't look so scared, my child. Nick won't
eat you. It's he should be nervous, not you. Look, Janet, will you let me dine at your table tonight? I'm with
a couple who could probably do with having to have a little of one another's society."

"I'd love you to," I said gratefully. "But how on earth is it that Nicholas didn't tell you about us?"

"I've really seen very little of him. He's apparently in Skye collecting stuff on folklore and suchlike for a
book, and he's been moving from one place to another, with this as a main base. He's out most of the time.
I did ask after you, of course, and he just said: 'She's fine. She's still with Hugo, you know. They've a show
due soon.' I thought nothing of it."

"When was this?"

"Oh, when I first got here and found he was staying. May the tenth, or thereabouts."